Essentially,
this first part of the holisticgoal answers the question: "How do we want our lives to be, based upon what we value most, in
the context of the whole we are managing?" Remember, this need not be how things are now, but how you wish
them to be and what you are willing to work toward. How do you want to feel,
how do you want to be, most of the time?
Quality
of Life
refers to all aspects of your life experience within this particular context,
including but by no means limited to the questions below. You may want to take
time individually to write your answers to the following questions. These
questions are simply designed to get your mind engaged in the process. Anything
that is important to you should be included.
Do
try to articulate the qualities you want and value, rather than how you will
attain them. There are many ways to achieve things and no reason to limit you
in that regard now. Now, answer the
following questions – in writing! It is
best to do this individually at first.
·
What
are the three things that you really like about your life right now?
·
What
three things about your life would you like to change if you could?
·
Name
several talents or skills that you have and that you enjoy contributing to your
farm, family and community.
·
What
are three talents or skills that your spouse (or parent, child, hired person,
or business partner) contributes to the farm, family and community that you
really appreciate.
·
What
would you like to be doing 10 years from now?
What sort of changes would be necessary to bring that life to reality?
·
What
was the biggest change on your farm in the last five years? How did that change affect you? How did it affect your spouse, child, hired
person, business partner, or neighbors?
·
What
is the best part of your day?
If
this seems difficult, here is
some help to get you started.
Once
you have some writing done, take phrases from your QOL statement and list them
in the left column of a table like this one.
|
Quality
of Life phrase |
What
will that give me? |
What
will that give me? |
Now,
what will THAT give me? |
|
1.
|
|
|
|
|
2.
|
|
|
|
|
3.
|
|
||
|
4.
|
|
||
Now
for each phrase, ask yourself “what would that give me?” Ask it again and again, until you are sure
the phrase is truly fundamental to your desired Quality of Life. This is the beginning of a really fundamental
QOL statement. Once you have ten or
twenty phrases that seem truly fundamental you can rewrite your Quality of Life
statement more clearly. Start with “I want…”
When
each decision-maker has written a Quality of Life statement, you should work
together to create a combined statement.
You may want to go back and use these tables again for the combined
statement. Don’t be too hard on
yourselves. Get a draft statement
written to use for making decisions.
You will probably change it later.
Once
you have a draft Quality of Life Statement, move on to
Part Two.
|
You
may return to any of the following sections: |
Thanks
to Rio de la Vista and Alison Meares for some of the material on this page.